Nakamura tops F4 test while Olivieri logs FRegional laps at Mugello

Photo: ACI Sport

Junior single-seater teams from multiple categories were busy testing at Mugello this week, and it was Kean Nakamura Berta who set the Formula 4 pace.

While he was up against 32 drivers from other teams in Italian F4, absent from the entry list was R-ace GP’s fleet as the team instead ran two of its Formula Regional cars in the sessions for higher downforce machinery.

At the wheel of those were its F4 regular Emanuele Olivieri and Maximilian Popov, who competes for Van Amersfoort Racing in F4. Olivieri topped the times in the test’s 10-strong FRegional test contingent by 0.064 seconds after setting a 1m42.7s, with the driver of Trident’s #7 car pipping Popov to second by 0.123s.

In F4, 14-year-old local Niccolo Maccagnani was quickest in the first session on Tuesday. He posted a 1m50.65s to deny Nakamura top spot by 0.008s, with both improving on their final lap. US Racing’s Andrija Kostic trailed by 0.127s in third, with team-mate Gabriel Gomez a further 0.097s back in fourth. Four other drivers were within 0.5s of Maccagnani, with everyone else over a second slower.

Maccagnani lowered the pace to 1m49.926s in session two, edging Sebastian Wheldon by 0.028s. Prema’s drivers filled second to fifth place, with Nakamura behind Newman Chi and Salim Hanna Hernandez. Now a second covered the top 11, which featured three other Prema drivers.

Session three was slower and a 1m50.47s was enough to earn AKM Motorsport’s Tomass Stolcermanis, who raced for Prema earlier this year, first place. Maccagnani was 0.16s behind in second, and US’s Kabir Anurag was 0.736s off in third.

Nakamura bounced back in session four with the test’s fastest lap, a 1m49.454s. He ended the day with a 0.311s gap to Kostic, with Maccagnani and Hanna also within 0.4s of the new benchmark. Sasha Bondarev, Wheldon and Chi were next up, with VAR’s Dante Vinci completing a top eight split by half a second and reaching the peak of his pace on just his fifth lap.

Wednesday’s action began with familiar names at the top. Nakamura set a 1m49.568s to go fastest by 0.164s over Maccagnani, who set a personal best to move into second overall, with Hanna a further 0.026s back in third. Wheldon was the only other driver to lap sub-1m50s.

Kostic led a US 1-2-3 in session six, an early 1m50.058s putting him just 0.004s clear of Gomez who improved on his penultimate lap. Anurag was 0.128s behind, also posting his best effort on his first run, and Maccagnani was only 0.148s off the top in fourth. Prema’s top driver was Wheldon in 15th, 1.062s behind.

Prema moved back ahead in session seven, as 0.236s covered Nakamura, Bondarev, Hanna and Wheldon at the top. Nakamura set a 1m50.122s on his penultimate lap, and Maccagnani was 0.437s off that as best of the rest in fifth.

Vinci was a further 0.006s behind, then rose to second overall in the test by setting a 1m49.67s to top the final session.

That put him 0.216s off Nakamura’s benchmark, and 0.295s ahead of session eight’s long-time leader Maccagnani. Stolcermanis was 0.347s behind, and Mathilda Paatz (who did a day apiece with Prema and AS Motorsport) was 0.724s back in fourth. Lisa Billard was Prema’s top driver in eighth.

Test results